It seems that Reuters is getting ready for Windows 8 to be a big turkey by dusting off an old yarn about how the OS will fail because businesses are not going to be early adopters.

“There was once a time when the launch of a new Windows operating system was a huge deal for the technology departments in many businesses. Not anymore. Microsoft Corp's release of Windows 8 on Friday is likely to be a non-event for most companies -- and some experts say many may never adopt it,” a Reuters hack tapped onto his iMac. They have a point, businesses will be slow to adopt Windows 8 and a large chunk of them will stick to Windows XP until you prise it from their cold dead hands.

But that is what always happens. Corporates are rarely bleeding edge adopters of any operating system. It does not mean that Windows 8 is going to be a turkey, it might well be Microsoft's next Vista, but you are not going to tell by looking at corporate adoption.

A corporate who rolls out a new operating system before it has bedded in is asking for a shedload of headaches it does not need. Windows 7 is stable enough for most businesses and those who do upgrade from XP do have a place to go. Where Reuters gets things right however is that Microsoft it its bid to push into the consumer market might have left out businesses from their equation all together.

Doug Johnson, head of risk management policy at the American Bankers Association, whose members are among the world's biggest technology buyers is quoted as saying that Windows 8 is more of a consumer platform than it is a business platform, so it's not something that makes any sense from a business perspective.

IBM said it will ramp up efforts to sell cloud computing services to midsize businesses. The move is aimed at grabbing market share from companies like Amazon.com Inc and Salesforce.com Inc, which have been successful in the mid-market.

Mid-sized is apparently any company with less than 1,000 employees. The company's general manager in charge of small and medium-sized businesses, Andy Monshaw, said that cloud computing was now cheap enough to reach a bigger base of smaller customers.

Of course in some cases Biggish Blue will have to explain to the companies what a cloud is and why it is a good idea to have your data stored in a different place.

Mid-sized businesses in the UK are Europe's worst performers when it comes to managing information risk.

According to recent research from information management firm Iron Mountain and PwC showed that the British are bit rubbish when it came to security. The survey involved 600 senior managers of mid-sized European businesses in the UK, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands and Spain.

The analysts compiled an index based on a set of measures that, if put in place and frequently monitored, would help protect the information held by an organization. Of the six countries included, the UK consistently fared the worst, achieving a score of only 55.08 against a target of 100. While there was no stand-out performer in Europe, Hungary outperformed the other European countries with the highest overall index score of 61.

Christian Toon, head of information risk at Iron Mountain Europe said it was a surprise that the British performed so badly. It was not as if they were playing football or anything.

"High-profile data breaches receive such widespread media attention in the UK, seriously damaging brand reputation. But the findings reveal that though many British businesses do have a data protection and information risk strategy in place, most fail to monitor its effectiveness," he said.

In Hungary, with its high level of ISO certification, businesses are more likely to have training programs, clear guidance, codes of conduct and employee communication programs in place. Toon said that while some countries performed better than others, the results suggest that there is a problem across the board with the way businesses regard information risk.

"Too few see the risk as a serious threat to their business. Addressing this shortcoming must start from the top. It's time for the Boardroom to start making Corporate Information Responsibility an integral part of their organisation, just as many have done with Corporate Social Responsibility," he said.